Utilitarianism And Situation Ethics

1.0 Introduction
Ethics is defined as the study of right and wrong, and the moral principles governing behaviour (Velasquez, Andre, Shanks, & Meyer, 2010). In the world today, ethics is essential to ensure the preservation of human dignity and to guide moral decisions, especially when considering the new issues and controversies emerging due to technological and societal advances. There are a range of ethical frameworks from which these issues can be examined including, but not limited to, natural law, utilitarianism and situational ethics. This report will focus on the issue of human trafficking from the philosophical framework of situational ethics. It will also consider an ethical framework based on the Catholic social teachings with reference

Situation ethics was first proposed by Anglican theologian Joseph Fletcher in 1963 and is based upon the principle that ‘God is love’ (1 John 4:8) (Jenkins, 2003). Situational ethics disregards absolute rules and moral laws, and instead views an ethical dilemma from the perspective that a moral action is one which results in the most loving outcome, and that each situation is unique and must be treated as such. Situational ethics does not support human trafficking as its outcome is not loving, but rather harms the victim, as well violating the principles of the agapeistic calculus (refer to Appendix figure 2). Situational ethics has many disadvantages and advantages when applied to human trafficking (refer to Appendix figure 3). Primarily, situational ethics focuses on motives and therefore as human trafficking is intended to exploit and harm the victims it is condemned by situational ethics. However, the flaw in this is best illustrated by the phrase ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions’, a good intentions do not always result in good outcomes nor do they always have the most loving outcome, which is impossible to predict or control. Overall, though there are several disadvantages to situational ethics, it is an essentially sound framework when applied correctly, honestly and in conjunction with the Christian ideal of love stated in the Biblical passage

Dignity refers to the inherent sacredness of human life and the right of human beings to be treated with respect. When applied to workers this includes the right to fair wages, safe working conditions and control over employment. However, human trafficking violates these rights as, in order to obtain their consent to be trafficked, many victims are lied to about the conditions and industry of the work they will be involved in (Uibu, 2015). Furthermore, they are also deprived of adequate wages, forced to work in unsafe conditions and are unable to terminate their employment due to fear of retribution or violence from their employer or traffickers (Uibu, 2015). This violation of dignity is condemned in the Encyclical ‘Laborem Exercens’ (On Human Work) (Pope John Paul II, 1981), which states that ‘man’s life is built up every day from work, from work it derives its dignity [however], in work, man himself should not experience a lowering of his own dignity.’ In other words, though work is integral to human dignity, it should not be used to exploit workers. Furthermore, the Bible also supports workers’ dignity in the passage, ‘To the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due’ (Romans 4:4) which establishes right of workers to fair wages. Like situational ethics, the Catholic Social teaching, ‘The Dignity of Work/Rights